The field of the invention pertains to devices to lift small boats from the water and, in particular, to davits and cradles on larger boats for lifting and carrying smaller boats.
An early closure, U.S. Pat. No. 759,340, illustrates a boat launching apparatus for large life boats on steamships. The life boat is clamped tightly to a pair of semicircular cradles in turn fastened to a pair of long arms. The long arms in turn are hinged to an upper deck of the steamship.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,185,083 and 3,401,806 disclose shallow water and shoreside cradle hoists respectively. Hinged mounts attached to one side of the cradles permit the cradles to be rotated upwardly somewhat more than 90.degree. to raise an enclosed small boat up and out of the water.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,143,991 and 3,216,388 disclose a pair of arms that clamp to the gunwale of a small boat and are hinged to the swim platform at the stern of a large boat. The small boat is rotated up and out of the water by a line attached to the opposite gunwale of the small boat. A more complicated hinged frame for lifting a small boat up and out of the water onto a swim deck is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,647,089. The frame clamps to the small boat gunwale and requires a special line attachment adjacent the opposite gunwale of the small boat.
More recently snap davits that are fastened to the swim deck and adjacent the small boat gunwale have become available. As with some of the above disclosures, special fittings are permanently attached to the gunwales of the small boat. The snap davits, however, provide a more convenient attachment of the small boat to the swim platform. The snap davit device requires special attachments adhesively fastened to the inflated side tube of a rubber inflatable boat. Unfortunately, such attachments are prone to failure in the marine environment.
Despite the disclosures above most inflatable dinghies are carried on the deck of a larger boat, either fully inflated or deflated. Fully inflated a dinghy requires a significant amount of deck space which is at a premium on most boats. Deflated, the dinghy requires inflation for each use which is an inconvenience at best and a time consuming hazard if the dinghy serves as a life boat. Moreover, an unsecured dinghy is difficult to board or to load and unload. It is not unusual for a person to fall into the water in attempting to board and not unknown to lose an outboard motor in attempting to install the motor on the dinghy because of movement of the unsecured dinghy. With a view toward providing a secure means of raising an inflatable dinghy up and out of the water the applicant has developed the following invention.